page_title: New Zealand Railways Road Services
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: New Zealand Railways Road Services / History
caption_attribution_description: Archives Reference: ABIN W3337 Box 147 Back cover of a commerative publication about Railway Road Services in New Zealand published 1976, showing the buses used from 1926 to 1976. Railway Road services were established in the Hawke's Bay because the public preferred the convenience of bus travel over rail on route between Napier and Hastings. Regular services began between Napier and Hastings on 10 November 1926, called the Hastings-Napier Blue Fleet Bus services.
context_page_description: The New Zealand Railways Road Services was a branch of the New Zealand Railways Department and later the New Zealand Railways Corporation. It operated long-distance, tourist and suburban bus services and freight trucking and parcel services. Its name was New Zealand Railways Road Motor Service until mid-1936.
context_section_description: The first bus operation by NZR began on 1 October 1907, between Culverden on the Waiau Branch and Waiau Ferry in Canterbury. By the 1920s NZR was noticing a considerable downturn in rail passenger traffic on many lines due to increasing ownership of private cars, and from 1923 it began to coordinate rail passenger services with private bus services.
  In November 1926, NZR purchased a private bus firm operating between Hastings and Napier in the Hawke's Bay region. NZR then acquired various other bus services in Dunedin and the Hutt Valley, and by 1928 was operating 56 buses. In 1931 Parliament passed the Transport Licensing Act, which regulated local bus services to ensure that services would not compete with NZR. This further increased acquisitions by NZR of small bus companies.
  There was a certain amount of rivalry within NZR between NZRRS and the rail Traffic Branch and in many ways they competed with rather than complement each other. For example, many cities had bus terminals some distance from railway stations and many NZRRS routes ran parallel to and at similar times to trains. By 1954 the bus routes covered 6,000 miles (9,700 km), but generally at higher fares than the railways. For example, the 230 miles (370 km) Christchurch-Dunedin return journey cost £2 13s 6d by rail, but £3 10s by bus and took 7hr 10min on the fastest train, but 9hr by bus.
caption: Back cover of a commemorative publication about Railway Road Services in New Zealand published 1976, showing the buses used from 1926 to 1976.
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